Expanding the Rocket Fire

Two days ago, a cease fire was supposedly negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza.  That was followed almost immediately by more rocket launches from inside Gaza aimed at Israel and Israeli retaliation yesterday.  Then, in the middle of last night, the Palestinians escalated the confrontation.  They fired two rockets at the Israeli city of Be'er Sheva.  Both were shot down by the Israeli Iron Dome system, but this was still a major event.  First of all, these were no longer short range missiles like those shot over the past ten days.  They were medium range rockets.  Second, Be'er Sheva is a metropolitan area with over half a million people.  This is a strike at a major Israeli city.  Third, these missiles came (according to Israeli intelligence) from the stockpiles of Hamas rather than Islamic Jihad which had launched all the prior attacks.  The Israelis responded with air strikes on Hamas targets.

Most likely, all of these launches are attempts by the most militant Palestinians in Gaza to foment an all out war between Israel and Hamas.  That may seem odd since Hamas would surely lose such a war.  Nevertheless, these militants think that by forcing Israel to attack the forces of Hamas, they can convince the world that Israel is committing "war crimes" by defending itself and that this will redound to their benefit eventually.  It seems like a rather demented strategy to me, but I frown on getting innocent people killed to advance one's political position.

In any event, we will have to see where this goes in the next few days.  If the Hamas leadership has actually invested itself in a current battle with Israel, we could see war here this week.  If, as seems more likely, the Hamas leadership did not sanction the latest attack, things might calm down.